PULLMAN, Wash. -- Fifth-year Washington State volleyball Head Coach Jen Greeny welcomed 15 Cougars players to the Bohler Gym court Aug. 10, for the first of two weeks of twice daily practice sessions.
Greeny and her staff of assistant coaches, Burdette Greeny and Shannon Hunt, are working with seven returning letterwinners, including four starters from the 2014 squad.
Lone senior Kate Sommer anchors the squad for 2015. The libero has accumulated 1,475 digs in three years which is second-best in WSU all-time records and only 298 digs from claiming the school record. Kyra Holt enters her junior season on the verge of reaching the 1,000 kills. Holt, the 2013 AVCA Pacific North Region Freshman of the Year as well as an All-Pac-12 Honorable Mention and Pac-12 All-Freshman First Team selection, starts the 2015 season with 871 career kills, just 129 kills from 1,000.
Eight freshmen join the Cougars this season and this class was ranked PrepVolleyball.com's 21st-best in the nation. Among that class are: McKenna Woodford, a 6-4 outside hitter from Chandler, Ariz., an Under Armour High School All-American, and listed at No. 62 on PrepVolleyball.com's top 100 players in the country; Jocelyn Urias, a 6-3 middle blocker from Tijuana and a member of the Mexican National Team; Montana's 2014 Gatorade Player of the Year, Taylor Mims, a 6-3 middle blocker from Billings; and Claire Martin, a 6-4 middle blocker from Tacoma and the Tacoma News Tribune's Female Athlete of the Year.
Greeny reported the entire team worked tirelessly in the weight room and on the court during the summer and that work is evident in the early practices.
The Cougars will practice most mornings and afternoons until Washington State University fall classes begin Aug. 24, when volleyball practices will be held in the afternoons. WSU opens the season at the Radford (Va.) Invitational tournament Aug. 28-29, returns to the Palouse for the Idaho Invitational Sept. 4-5 in Moscow, and then hosts the Cougar Challenge tournament Sept. 11-12. The Texas Tech Lone Star Showdown in Lubbock will be the final non-conference matches Sept. 18-19. WSU hosts Washington in the Pac-12 Conference opener, Thursday, Sept. 24, at 7 p.m. in Bohler Gym and the match will be shown live on the Pac-12 Networks. The Pac-12 TV Networks will broadcast 13 WSU matches in 2014. Other TV contests for the Cougars include Arizona, Arizona State, California, Oregon, Oregon State, and Stanford.
All road matches will be broadcast live in the Pullman area on KQQQ-AM radio (1150) and on the wsucougars.com website. Veteran broadcaster Steve Grubbs will be announcing his 10th season of Cougar volleyball.
Season ticket and single game tickets are on sale now and can be bought online at wsucougars.com or by calling 1-800-GO-COUGS.